I lived in Key Largo for an entire winter spring and into the summer. Was a really amazing place for sure. Most beautiful weather in the winter and the people were fun and wild. I would go at night to the Caribbean Club and find some good bud there. I found it strange that any time I would get weed down there it was almost impossible to smoke because of the humidity. I ended up having to freeze the entire bag of bud then hurry up and grind it all up frozen to have any chance of smoking it in a joint or even a pipe. People would tell stories of finding 500 pounds of weed in the mangroves and of course the hard stuff was all over there. I saw that stuff would turn to water if out of the bag. Shit is really strange there, some serious bad guys there too wow.I found it to be too quiet the further down into the keys it was like being in a grave yard. Very quiet you almost absorb into nature. the Florida of Florida. Easy to get trapped down there with only 1 road in and 1 road out. Wild lands down there in South Florida very wild. Ok thatâs all story time is over if you have any exp of your own pls add thank you OG.
I was a park ranger at Pennekamp back in 1976. Nearly every weekend we were called out to round up square groupers aka âsea weedâ. Single bales and multiples were the norm. After one stormy weekend the Marine Patrol was called out to check on a capsized Cigarette go fast boat. MP hooked up the overturned boat to tow it back to the Pennekamp marina. On the way back in packages began to appear on the surface in the wake. 5 tons of hash were in that boat. No one was found.
I was doing the glamorous chore of painting picnic tables State Park Green one day when the Captain asked me to help him launch a park patrol boat. Sure thing! Well, he backed it down the ramp and I started to release the winch when I noticed water pooling in the stern. OOPS! Captain Jack had not put the plug in. LOL! The truck was unable to pull the boat back up the ramp and I ran to the maintenance yard to get a tractor. We got the boat back up the ramp and waited for it to drain.
He asked me if I wanted to go for a âboat rideâ. Sure thing why not? Picnic tables will be there when I get back. Off we went into the Atlantic and then under a bridge into Florida Bay where Marine Patrol was waiting along with the Coast Guard. One very large MP officer decked out in body armor and toting an AR boarded our boat and the âboat rideâ turned into an âoperationâ. There were 6 boats and two helicopters in our armada and Iâm listening to the radio advising us to keep the late afternoon sun behind us on our approach to a suspicious vessel in the Key Largo Sound. Advised that occupants of said vessel should be considered armed and dangerous. Ummm⌠this was not the boat ride I pictured. I hunkered down in the boat seat directly behind Officer Large.
The âvesselâ was a steel hulled Chinese junk about 60â long. The hull had a two tone paint scheme of DOT yellow over State Park Green. The sail was a faded maroon color. The green was a near perfect match of my paint stained fingers. LOL Suspicious vessel indeed! There was a steady 15 knot wind out of the west and the Sound was very choppy when we hailed the vessel to heave to and prepare for boarding. A man and his family were on board with a decorated Christmas tree standing mid ship. He asked if he could maintain his heading in the channel so that he could make safe anchorage before dark. Permission granted.
We pulled alongside the junk and tossed a line to secure our boat for boarding. The chop was so bad that our fiberglass patrol boat was getting beaten on the steel hull. First the rub rail detached and then the bow rail got crunched and then the tow line snapped and we had an official Chinese Fire Drill on our hands. The âsuspicious activityâ was due to unfamiliarity with the channel in the Sound. Apparently the vessel was observed âcoming aboutâ several times which for some reason triggered the whole boarding fiasco. There were some very apologetic LEOs that day.
Did I tell you about the day it snowed on Key Largo while I was riding my bicycle to work? Socks as mittens are ineffective.
